Fountain paint brushes



March 12, 1957 c. GUBLER 2,784,435

FOUNTAIN PAINT BRUSHES Filed March 24, 1953 INVENTUR 6%7/95 zzZ/er,

ATM )RNEY United States Patent FOUNTAIN PAINT BRUSHES Charles Gubler, Sea Isle City, N. J.

Application March 24, 1953, Serial No. 344,361

3 Claims. (Cl. 15-428) My invention relates to a new and useful improvement in paint brushes and more particularly to a fountain paint brush.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a fountain paint brush that is to be supplied with paint from a container or tank Worn by the painter, there being a valve in the brush to regulate the flow; and to furthermore provide a gate in the brush so that when the valve is open, the paint may be allowed to flow to the full width of the brush, or, it may be restricted to onehalf of the width of the brush.

It often happens that a painter, especially in painting a window, will necessarily use a brush of a narrow width; but, with the present invention, by cutting 01f the flow from half of the brush, he can still use the same brush.

Another object of the invention is to provide a fountain paint brush wherein the flow can be controlled to the whole brush or can be directed to one-half of the brush; and, furthermore, by the provision of a guard on one side of the brush, it can be held up against the frame of the window to act as a guide, and in that way the woodwork can be painted without much or any paint getting on the window pane.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a fountain paint brush wherein the base with the bristles may be quickly and easily removed from the handle for cleaning purposes, or even for substituting a different base with bristles.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a fountain paint brush wherein the base with its bristles may be quickly disengaged from the handle through which the paint is fed. In the base there is a thimble, which may be of paper or plastic, to prevent the paint from hardening in the upper part of the bristles.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a fountain paint brush having a main passageway therethrough for the flow of paint, together with a valve for controlling the flow; second, a gate to control the flow to one side of the brush; and, third, at thimble within the base, which thimble has a central partition registering with the gate.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certain new and novel arrangements and combination of parts as will be hereinafter more fully de scribed and pointed out in the claims.

Referring now to the drawings, showing a preferred embodiment,

Fig. l is a side elevation, parts broken away for the sake of clearness,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal section, showing the lower part of the brush.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a similar view, taken on line 44 of Fig. 2,

Fig. 5 is an enlarged, sectional View, taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 6 is a perspective of the gate.

Referring now more particularly to the several views, there is shown in Fig. l, the handle 1 with the bristle base 2,784,435 Patented Mar. 12, 1957 2 fitted thereon, and as the handle 1 is formed of two like parts, a description of the one is a description of both.

As may be seen in Fig. 1, the handle 1 is conventional and widens out at its lower end as at 3. Extending centrally of the handle 1 may be seen the central channel or groove 4, so that when the two halves are secured to each other by the bolts 5 there is a central passageway 4 extending completely throughout the handle 1 with its widened portion 3.

The lower end of this passageway or channel 4 narrows slightly as at 6. Located in the handle 1 there is fitted a metal valve 7 which consists of the plunger 8 to operate the slide portion 9 of the valve 7, which slide portion 9 has the orifice 10 therethrough; and located below the inner portion 9 of the valve 7 is the spring 11, so that normally the orifice 10 is not in line with the passageway 4, and the valve 7 is therefore closed.

This is a metal valve 7 and has the threaded end portion 12, and to this threaded end portion 12 is shown connected the pipe 13 which extends just without the handle 1, as shown in Fig. l, and to which pipe 13 may be connected a flexible hose 14, which in turn will lead to a paint supply (not shown).

Thus, when the plunger 8 is depressed, paint can flow through the supply pipe 14 and the other pipe 13 and down through the passageway 4 through the lower end of the passageway 4 as at 6.

Now, referring for the moment to Fig. 2, there is shown a gate 15 which fits within a slot 16. This gate 15 comprises the end portion 17 and the handle 18, and it will be noticed that the slot 16 and the gate 15 extend at an angular position to the lower portion 3 of the brush handle 1.

The length of the handle 18 of the gate 15 is such that the curled end 19 when contacting with the outer surface of the handle 1 will cause the lower end 17 of the gate 15 to extend just half way across the restricted end 6 of the channel 4. The purpose of this is when it is desired to direct paint to only one-half of the bristle base 2, which will be explained shortly.

Referring now to the bristle base 2, it will be seen that it consists of a metal casing 20, in which are vulcanized the bristles 21, that is, around the inner walls of the lower end of the casing 20, leaving a central space 22 in which the lower part 3 of the handle 1 may fit, the lower end 3 of the handle 1 abutting against the upper ends of the vulcanized bristles 21.

The location of the bristles 21 around the casing leaves a central space as at 23 so that as the paint flows it will pass into this space 23 to supply the bristles 21 with the necessary paint.

Around this casing 20 may be seen the outwardly flared rim 24 so that if the paint brush is held with the bristles 21 upwardly, paint would not run down on the handle portion 3 or the handle 1.

Also movably secured to the casing 20 may be seen the guard 25 which may slide under the bands 25a and rim 24 fastened to the casing 20, so that the brush may be held against the side of a window frame, for instance, to act as a guide as the paint brush is moved up and down the side.

By having this guard 25 slideable it can either be pushed downwardly (as may be seen in Fig. 1) to act as a guide, or, it may be moved rearwardly, With respect to Fig. 1, so that it does not interfere with the ordinary use of the brush.

Now, to be able to direct the paint to only a part of the bristles 21, I provide a thimble 26 that will fit down within the space 23, this thimble 26 being made of thin plastic or paper and having the central vertical partition 27 that will register with the lower end 17 of the gate 15 3 when the same is in its innermost position. This thimble 26 is removable and is to be thrown away after each using of the brush, so that the paint wont harden on the upper part of the bristles 21.

Thus, when the gate 15 is pulled to its outermost position, the paint may flow to the two parts a and b of the divided thimble 26, but when the gate 15 is in its innermost position, the paint is cut off from the part or compartment b and will flow only to the part or compartment 0. Thus when it is desired to paint only a Window strip or division strip the paint may be directed to one half of the brush.

As may be seen in Fig. 2, the casing 20 may have a small protrusion 28 formed thereon and a spring finger 29 may be fastened to the handle 1 so that when the bristle base 2 is fitted on the lower end 3 of the handle 1, it will be held firmly in position until manually pulled therefrom.

To operate the brush, therefore, it will be seen that there is a container (not shown) which will be connected with the pipe 14, and by operating the plunger 8 of the valve 7, paint will be allowed to flow down to the bristle base 2. Here the paint may be directed to half of the bristles 21 or to all of the bristles 21 by a manipulation of the handle 18 of the gate 15. Thus, if a two inch brush is used, the paint may be directed to half of the brush,

so that in reality there is a brush of one inch width being used, or, it may be used as a two inch width brush.

By providing a paper or thin plastic thimble 26, the

same may be removed after the days painting so that paint wont tend to harden on the upper part of the bristles 21.

I am aware that it is old to provide a fountain paint brush, and I do not claim my invention broadly as such. However, I am not aware of a paint brush wherein not only may the flow be regulated, but wherein the flow may be directed to either all of the bristles or to half of them.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a fountain paint brush, a handle having a passageway therethrough adapted to be connected to a paint supply, a cutofi valve for said passageway in said handle, a bristle base having a hollow casing open at its bottom and bristles mounted in the bottom of the casing defining a central open space, the passageway in the handle adapted to direct paint to said bristles, the base removable with respect to the handle, means for normally locking the base to the handle, a disposable thimble within the base, said thimble being tubular or open-ended, communicating with said passageway, and occupying the said central open space, said thimble having a central longitudinal partition dividing the thimble into two parts, a slideable gate means within the handle for selectively directing the paint into one of said parts in said thimble to thus supply only one half of the bristles with paint, and said thimble also adapted to prevent the paint from hardening at the upper part of the bristles.

2. In a Hat fountain paint brush, a handle having a passageway therethrough adapted to be connected to a paint supply, a cutoff valve for said passageway in said handle, a bristle base having a hollow open-bottom casing and bristles mounted in the bottom of the base defining a central open space, the passageway in the handle adapted to direct paint to said bristles, the base removable with respect to the handle, means for normally locking the base to the handle, a disposable thimble within the base, said thimble being tubular or open-ended, com municating with said passageway, and occupying the said central open space, said thimble having a central longitudinal partition dividing the thimble into two parts, a slideable gate means within the handle and when closed extending across half the passageway in engagement with the partition within the thimble for cutting ofi the paint from one half of 'the bristles, and said thimble also adapted to prevent paint from hardening about the upper part of the bristles.

3. In a fountain paint brush, a handle having a passageway therethrough adapted to be connected to a paint supply, a cutofi valve for said passageway in said handle. a bristle base having a hollow open-bottom casing and bristles mounted in the bottom of the base defining a central open space, the passageway in the handle adapted to direct paint to said bristles, the base removable with respect to the handle, means for normally locking the base to the handle, a disposable thimble within the base, said thimble being tubular or open-ended, communicating with said passageway, and occupying the said central open space, said thimble having a central longitudinal partition dividing the thimble into two parts, a slideable gate means within the handle and when closed extending across half the passageway in engagement with the pan tition within the thimble for cutting off the paint from one half of the bristles, said thimble also adapted to prevent paint from hardening the bristles, and a movable guard mounted on the outside and side edge of the base to act as a guide when the paint is directed to only one half of the bristles.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 499,842 Long June 20, 1893 734,319 Grahn July 21, 1903 1,342,211 Hainsey June 1, 1920 2,542,862 Epperson Feb. 20, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 28,394 Australia Aug. 20, 1931 

